Protoboy

Protoboy is one of the first robots created by Professor Moshimo, and is the elder brother of Robotboy, Robotman, Robotgirl, and Robotbird. He was stolen by Dr. Kamikazi so he could rule the world, but he accidentally made him too evil, so he had to be shut down after he went on a rampage.

Years later, after hearing about Protoboy, Robotboy, being sad that he had no family of his own, traveled to Kamikazi's lair and reactivated Protoboy and tried to turn him good again, but to no avail. Protoboy was seemingly destroyed in a explosion, but he would later make several comebacks later on determined to destroy Moshimo and the rest of his robots.

History[]

Professor Moshimo created Protoboy many years ago after getting out of the academy he attended. But because of the Professor's young age, Protoboy lacked humanity and was quite vicious. He was later kidnapped by a young Dr. Kamikazi who turned him evil so he could rule the world, but he made him too evil for him to control, to which Protoboy was deactivated after being defeated by Constantine.

After Robotboy reactivates him, Protoboy becomes full of rage and decides to destroy everything near him. Robotboy tries to be nice to him, but Protoboy doesn't stand for this. He shows disdain for Robotboy`s friendship, and attempts to "destroy" him. When Robotboy superactivated, Protoboy did as well. Robotboy was nearly defeated until he used the new weapon Moshimo gave him, which is essentially a limpet mine. As a result, Protoboy seemingly was destroyed.

He came back in "The Revenge of Protoboy" where he secretly threw a meteor at Robotboy Tommy and Gus. Robotboy destroyed it. Before Protoboy revealed himself, Tommy expresses disbelief as Protoboy was seemingly blown up, Protoboy states that he isn’t "so easy to destroy" and he will get revenge on his brother. He superactivates and brutally attacks Robotboy and nearly kills him, when he gets a phone call from someone her refers to as "dear", he states that he doesn’t have time to finish Robotboy but he will be back.

Personality[]

He doesn't show much emotion, as he mostly speaks in a monotonic voice and his face is almost always static. He shows a enjoyment in destroying things and causing harm to people. He also has an enjoyment for fighting, such as in "The Revenge of Protoboy" when he says that combat with Robotboy would be exciting. He seems to be jealous of Robotboy, as implied in "The Old Switcharobot" when he said to Moshimo when he was going to attack him that Moshimo likes Robotboy better then him. Even though he is said to be incapable of emotion or empathy, he seems to have a ally who may seem to be his girlfriend.

Powers and Abilities[]

Vision
Enchanced Speed
Flight (via propulsor)
Take his Motherboard out
Scissors
Two Blasters
Enchanced Strength
Glowing Eyes
Knowledge of Machinery

Protoboy's powers can be sectioned by his modes of activation.

Like Robotboy, he has advanced fighting skills.

His Vision is similar to Robotboy's, albeit it's red.

Like Robotboy, and has enchanced strength and speed. He is shown to be able to lift a big cruise ship.

He also has two blasters which sprout from his right hand, he is able to fire both lasers from them, the bottom one can also fire bullets.

He is shown to have a set of scissors which sprout from his knuckles.

According to Jan Van Rijsselberge he posses the knowledge to modify machinery.

Weaknesses[]

Appearance[]

He resembles his brother Robotboy, however his mouth is static (apart from the flashback in "Brother" and an animation error in the present), his eyes are always red, his head shape isn’t round, his ears, feet and hands are black with a gold shading, his fingers, wrists and kneecaps are gold, he has circuits on his forehead, his waist is gold, his crotch is black, he's also shown to be taller than Robotboy and around Tommy's height.

Appearances[]

Protoboy has only appeared in 5 episodes which are the following; "Brother", "The Old Switcharobot", "The Revenge of Protoboy", "Donnie Turnbull's Day Off" (cameo in Robotboy's body in flashback during the montage of Donnie being abused), and "The Return of Robotgirl."

Relationships[]

Robotboy[]

A very bad relationship, he shows no affection towards his younger brother and has tried to kill him many times. "The Revenge of Protoboy" in particular shows his cruelty to him well, as he took pleasure in tearing him apart and tried to kill him, only stopped by getting a phone call from "His Dear". Later he didn’t care that Robotboy didn’t want to fight and disregarded that fact they were brothers. After seemingly destroying him, he cruelly remarked that he wished Robotboy were there to see him destroy the ship and kill all the people on it. This is why Robotboy seems to hate Protoboy more than his other villains.

Tommy Turnbull[]

Not a very good relationship together with Tommy. He almost destroyed him on six occasions, two in "Brother", three in "The Revenge of Protoboy", and one in "The Return of Robotgirl".

Gus Turner[]

A very bad relationship, In the episode "The Old Switcharobot" when Protoboy was inside Robotboy's body he punched Gus out of Tommy's window when Gus was saying many awful things about him. In "The Return of Robotgirl", he almost destroyed him for tricking him that he's Moshimo's other robot.

Lola Mbola[]

A bad relationship.

Professor Moshimo[]

A bad relationship. Before he was reprogrammed, he was rather hostile to him, though this may have been a result of his lack of humanity. After being reprogrammed, Protoboy hates how Moshimo likes Robotboy more than him. And has tried to kill him at least 4 times, two in "Brother", one in "The Old Switcharobot" and one in "The Return of Robotgirl".

Robotgirl[]

A bad relationship. Like with his brother, Protoboy doesn’t show any compassion for her, and tried to lie to her to destroy her, Robotboy and Moshimo.

Protoboy's Dear[]

In the episode "The Revenge of Protoboy" he spoke on his cellphone to his dear. (as he calls her) Although it is unknown which character he spoke to but it could've possibly been his girlfriend since he gives her a kiss when he had finished talking to her.

Trivia[]

Despite only appearing four times, he is the most popular villain in the series, as he typically gets the most fanart and praise, even beating out Dr. Kamikazi and Constantine.
In Protoboy's debut episode "Brother", his flames while flying were orange like Robotboy & Robotgirl, but in his later appearances, his flames are blue.
Also, in "Brother", Protoboy's vocabulary is quite flat (he mostly says "destroy") & his voice was also deeper and more robotic, but in later episodes his vocabulary got better, his voice becomes lighter and more monotonic.
His eyes are in the same shape seen in Robotboy's Superactivated mode.
Unlike Robotboy who doesn't speak when he's Superactivated, Protoboy can speak clearly when he's Superactivated. In fact, when Robotboy was in Protoboy's body (from "The Old Switcharobot") he didn't speak at all when he Superactivated in Protoboy's body. This could be due to his habit of not speaking in his own Superactivated mode.
Protoboy has two different appearances when he's Superactivated, one is his regular and the other with a big gun appearing from his back and while transforming he appears more red. This version only appears for a short time in The Revenge of Protoboy.
According to Jan Van Rijsselberge, Protoboy was not Robotboy's only prototype, there were a few experiments but none were fully operational, and thus didn't get a name.
He is one of the few characters to have been killed, though he always comes back and he survives his final appearance.
How Protoboy gets repaired after being destroyed is unknown, but in The Revenge of Protoboy, it is hinted at that he can heal himself (him saying he is "no so easy to destroy" and Moshimo later on stating that "no weapon can stop him"). It is possible that someone is repairing him after he gets destroyed, the one he spoke with on his phone (which could be his girlfriend or wife since he calls her; "Dear.").
- Jan Van has stated that there is no logical explanation, but rather "the suspension of disbelief", as he believes that it would be a mistake to look for logic or realism in a cartoon show. Despite this, he said that Protoboy coming back could be a tribute to Terminator, like how Terminators from that series keep coming back no matter what.
The idea of a prototype brother may have been inspired by Proto Man from the Mega Man series.
The idea of an evil gold colored brother might have been inspired by Atlas from the 80's version of Astro Boy.
His last words in the series were "Not finished, yet!!" (the last word was cut due to being shot by Superactivated Robotboy).
Interestingly, there's never been an episode that has Robotboy in his deactivated mode where Protoboy appears. Though both Protoboy and Robotgirl have been in their deactivated modes in episodes where the former appears.
He is treated notably more serious then most of the other villains on the show; his crimes are nearly always played for drama rather than the usual comedy expected from the show. This was to make him stand out and look cooler.
It is unknown if he runs on batteries or needs to be charged like Robotboy and Robotgirl.
Protoboy's name has been pronounced differently by several characters, "prou-tow-boy" by himself, Moshimo "prou-to-boy" by Gus and Tommy and "pro-to-boy" by Robotboy and Robotgirl.
According to Robert Mittenthal, he was never meant as a one-time villain. Robert and the crew also felt he had the potential to be an excellent villain due to Robotboy's desire to become a real boy.
- He also gave two possible explanations to why Protoboy's return was so vague, as he wrote the show years ago and he doesn’t remember exactly correct.
  - He said that they never intended to kill him off in Brother, but instead have Robotboy disable him but not destroy him so they have the possibility to bring him back later on. Though how the climatic battle turned out was decided by Charlie Bean and the storyboard artists. He then said that as writers they may not have seen the final episode when they started writing The Revenge of Protoboy, and he said that if they had known how much he had been completely destroyed, they would have come up with a more comprehensive explanation as to why he came back to life. And he said there are plenty of possible explanations as to why he came back.
  - The other one was that he and the writers may have explained it in the script, but it was cut by the producers to fill the 11 minute time restriction.
Also according to Robert, if there was a series 3, they may have planned for Protoboy to turn good.
According to Jan Van Rijsselberge, he survived the titanium factory explosion in The Return of Robotgirl. Robert Mittenthal also believed he did.
The front side of the arm cannon he has while superactivated changes designs throughout the series, only appearing the same in "The Old Switcharobot" and "The Return of Robotgirl".
His return in the series was leaked in a November 2007 blogpost by Heath Kenny where a sketch of him can be seen.